Nearly ten years after their first album as a duo,
the Finn Brothers
returned with
Everyone Is Here
in the late summer of 2004. There was a considerably larger gap of time separating
and
Finn
than there was between that album and
Woodface
, the one
Crowded House
album to feature
Tim
and the first time the brothers worked together since the disbandment of
Split Enz
. Only four years separated
, while it took nearly a decade for
the Finns
to deliver a second album, and quite a bit happened during that time. Each brother released two studio albums and one live album (
's was a collaborative live effort, but it could be argued that
Neil
's star-studded
7 Worlds Collide
was collaborative too) and, more importantly, their mother Mary passed away, and all of this feeds into the spirit, vibe, and sensibility of
. At its heart, this is an album about family -- specifically, about being brothers. This is the first time
have written as directly and abundantly about their kinship, and unlike other famous
rock
siblings,
' relationship is not only cordial but loving, which doesn't mean that it's any less complex than such legendarily combative brothers from
the Everlys
through
the Gallaghers
.
mine their relationship throughout the album -- the word "brother" seems to appear here more often than the entirety of their past work -- and they've come up with a moving set of songs that may not add up to a concept album yet are surely unified by a set of themes. Similarly, despite three different sets of producers (primarily
Mitchell Froom
, but also
Jon Brion
Tony Visconti
for individual tracks) the album boasts a unified sound, particularly in comparison to the rather ragged, seemingly unfinished
effort
One Nil
(distilled and strengthened in its American incarnation,
One All
) or
's
Feeding the Gods
. It's a meditative, expertly crafted mature
pop
record, filled with subtle sonic textures -- ranging from banjos to harmoniums, all adding colors to layers of primarily acoustic guitars -- that give this low-key, reflective music a rich variety of color. While
lacks the brightness of much of
, it's
' strongest collection of songs since that masterpiece, and arguably their most emotionally resonant album to date. With any luck, it won't be another decade's wait until the sequel. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine